Museumification of the military historical heritage in the Dnieper Ukraine and the Crimea in the 19th and early 20th centuries

Abstract

The article focuses on the beginning of the process of formation of museum collections relevant to the military past of the Dnieper Ukraine in the 19th — first decade of the 20th century. It is determined, in the research scope, that the process of creating museum exhibits, which consisted of monuments of military historical heritage, was influenced by the following: the development of archaeological research, which was stimulated by the domination of classicism, which induced interest in the ancient past, the imperial power ideologizing the historical process, the Ukrainian nobility (descendants of the Cossacks elders) preserving historical memory of the victorious past of their people, and so on. It is found, that during the 19th century, museumification of the 19th and early 20th centuries military heritage had several trends: the creation of “propaganda” exposition, which would remind of the key, from the tsarist regime point of view, imperial army victories, foster respect for the imperial family and the royal power institution self, commemorate imperial myths, the formation of the Cossacks antiquities collections, initiated by Ukrainian intellectuals and scholars; expositions formed by the military according to purely professional interest. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of museums, which had monuments of military history as a part of their collections, were founded. Some of the aforementioned museums are the following: the Museum of Ukrainian Antiquities in Chernihiv, the Museum of Heroic Defense and the Liberation of the City of Sevastopol, the Museum of Poltava Battle, etc. Museumification of the military heritage has stimulated the development of various areas of special military-historical research.